Santa Rosa Press Democrat

December 17, 1998

PRIVACY RIGHTS

Editor:

    I read with alarm your article on the latest erosion by the U.S. Supreme Court of the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

    Many state supreme courts in this country have negated this trend by their federal counterpart to chip away at their citizens' right to privacy by declaring the same conduct a violation of their respective state constitutions.

    Unfortunately, since the passage of Proposition 8 in 1982, state courts in California have been precluded from suppressing evidence seized in violation of the state constitution. For the last 16 years, California courts have only been able to suppress evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search, if that search was in violation of the federal constititution.

    California voters should seriously consider restoring the power of state courts to suppress evidence obtained in violation of the state constitution. The public needs to understand that while the U.S. Supreme Court defines the boundaries as to what constitutes a violation of the Fourth Amendment, states are free to interpret provisions in their own constitutions concerning unreasonable search and seizure in such a way as to broaden the scope of privacy protection for their own citizens.

    We, as California citizens, are not powerless to act while the Supreme Court, in decision after decision, nullifies every citizen's fundamental belief that he or she should be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

    We need to repeal Proposition 8 sooner, not later, and provide more courts with an independent basis for suppressing evidence.

Robert L.S. Angres